A place of retreat for this mother of seven (currently fighting Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer) to speak on the joys and challenges of life for a Catholic family immersed in American culture.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

You Can Imagine My Relief

We had a full house of preschoolers today. My neighbor Robin broke her elbow and had to get it cast this morning, so I had her two, along with a friend of Tony's who came over to play. These kids all know eachother well and spend lots of time together, so even though I had six kids under the age of five, it was a very peaceful morning.

One of the things the kids were playing with was a light-up turtle that displays stars on the ceiling of a darkened room. So, they were in the hall closet for awhile, which is windowless, so they could see the stars. I was folding laundry (as usual) just outside the door so I could hear their squeals and giggles, which were, for the most part delightful. Have you ever listened to a bunch of three and four year old converse? It is pretty amusing stuff.

Hours later, while I was driving with them, Bella's announcement to Tony's friend tuned me in to their chattering: "I'm going to love you in the closet!"

Needless to say, I was dumbstruck. My head began to spin with questions. What was going on in that closet, anyway?! Has our world come to a place where I have to gender-separate three year olds for fear that they will be kissing in closets? What kind of moron must I be to allow them to play behind a closed door, even if I am just outside of it and think I know exactly what they're doing? How naive am I? My THREE YEAR OLD is talking about love ,and in a closet for pete's sake!

It took an interjection from Tony, who speaks three-year-old better than I do, for me to realize my mistake: "No, Bella, it's not nice to lock people in closets."

Oh, thank heavens, she meant to say lock, not love. Hallelujia! Suddenly I was back in a world where three year olds are still innocent and nothing untoward is going on in the closet. Silly me.